Robert Crais - The Sentry

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Table of Contents

ALSO BY ROBERT CRAIS

The First Rule
Chasing Darkness
The Watchman
The Two Minute Rule
The Forgotten Man
The Last Detective
Hostage
Demolition Angel
L.A. Requiem
Indigo Slam
Sunset Express
Voodoo River
Free Fall
Lullaby Town
Stalking The Angel
The Monkeys Raincoat

FOR

Clay Fourrier

From River Road to
the top of the Hollywood Sign,
my wingman chasing
the dreams.

With love, admiration,
and more than a few feverish beads.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing is solitary, but bringing a book to life requires a team. The author would like to thank Patricia Crais for her hard work and long hours improving the manuscript, and Lauren Crais for legal research and information.

Additional thanks go to Steve Brown for sharing his knowledge of the Venice Canals, as well as for providing guided tours and contributions to the story.

Marilyn Ducksworth, Michael Barson, and Matthew Venzon proved themselves to be the best in the business. Their efforts and innovative ideas were not only outstanding, but inspirational. Thank you.

Dittos to Kate Stark and Lydia Hirt for pushing the author and his work into emerging realms, and to Ivan Held and Neil Nyren for their belief and commitment.

In the UK, thanks go to Tim Healy Hutchinson, Jon Wood, Juliet Ewers, Helen Richardson, Susan Lamb, and Malcolm Edwards.

Also, thanks and respect to Aaron Priest and his team at the Aaron Priest Literary AgencyLucy Childs, Nicole James, John Richmond, and Lisa Vancefor building it bigger and making it happen.

And for my friend, David Thompson, a book and a margarita.

New Orleans

2005

Monday, 4:28 A.M., the narrow French Quarter room was smoky with cheap candles that smelled of honey. Daniel stared through broken shutters and shivering glass up the length of the alley, catching a thin slice of Jackson Square through curtains of gale-force rain that swirled through New Orleans like mad bats riding the storm. Daniel had never seen rain fall up before.

Daniel loved these damned hurricanes. He folded back the shutters, then opened the window. Rain hit him good. It tasted of salt and smelled of dead fish and weeds. The cat-five wind clawed through New Orleans at better than a hundred miles an hour, but back here in the alleyin a cheap one-room apartment over a poboy shopthe wind was no stronger than an arrogant breeze.

The power in this part of the Quarter had gone out almost an hour ago; hence, the candles Daniel found in the managers office. Emergency lighting fed by battery packs lit a few nearby buildings, giving a creepy blue glow to the shimmering walls. Most everyone in the surrounding buildings had gone. Not everyone, but most. The stubborn, the helpless, and the stupid had stayed.

Like Daniels friend, Tolley.

Tolley had stayed.

Stupid.

And now here they were in an empty building surrounded by empty buildings in an outrageous storm that had forced more than a million people out of the city, but Daniel kinda dug it. All this noise and all this emptiness, no one to hear Tolley scream.

Daniel turned from the window, arching his eyebrows.

You smell that? Thats what zombies smell like, brought up from the death with an unnatural life. You get to see a zombie?

Tolley was between answers right now, being tied to the bed with thirty feet of nylon cord. His head just kinda hung there, all swollen and broken, though he was still breathing. Every once in a while he would lurch and shiver. Daniel didnt let Tolleys lack of responsiveness stop him.

Daniel sauntered over to the bed. Cleo and Tobey shuffled out of the way, letting him pass.

Daniel had a syringe pack in his bag, along with some poppers, meth, and other choice pharmaceuticals. He took out the kit, shot up Tolley with some crystal, then waited for it to take effect. Outside, something exploded with a muffled whump that wasnt quite lost in the wind. Power transformer, probably, giving up the ghost, or maybe a wall falling over.

Tolleys eyes flickered amid a sudden fury of blinks, then dialed into focus. He tried to pull away when he saw Daniel, but, really, where could he go?

Daniel said, all serious, I asked you, you seen a zombie? They gotm here in this place, I know for a fact.

Tolley shook his head, which kinda pissed Daniel off. On his way to New Orleans six days earlier, having been sent to find Tolley based upon an absolutely spot-on lead, Daniel decided this was his one pure and good chance to see a zombie. Daniel could not abide a zombie, and found their existence offensive. The dead should stay dead, and not rise to walk again, all shamblin and vile and slack. He didnt care for vampires, either, but zombies just rubbed him the wrong way. Daniel had it on good authority that New Orleans held quite a few zombies, and maybe a vampire or two.

Dont be like that, Tolliver. New Orleans is supposed to have zombies, dont it, what with all this hoodoo and shit you got here, them zombies from Haiti? You musta seen something?

Tolleys eyes were bright with meth, the one eye, the left, a glossy red ball what with the burst veins.

Daniel wiped the rain from his face, and felt all tired.

Where is she?

I swear I doan know.

You kill her? That what you been tryin to say?

No!

She tell you where they goin?

I dont know nuthin about

Daniel hammered his fist straight down on Tolleys chest, and scooped up the Asp. The Asp was a collapsible steel rod almost two feet long. Daniel brought it down hard, lashing Tolleys chest, belly, thighs, and shins with a furious beating. Tolley screamed and jerked at his binds, but no one was left to hear. Daniel let him have it for a long time, then tossed aside the Asp and returned to the window. Tobey and Cleo scrambled out of his way.

I wanna see a goddamned zombie. A zombie, vampire, something to make this fuckin trip worthwhile.

The rain blew in hard, hot and salty as blood. Daniel didnt care. Here he was, come all this way, and not a zombie to be found. Anything was good, Daniel missed out. A life of miserable disappointments.

He looked at Tobey and Cleo. They were difficult to see in the flickery light, all blurry and smudged, but he could make them out well enough.

Bet I could kill me a zombie, one on one, straight up, and Id like to try. You think I could kill me a zombie?

Neither Tobey nor Cleo answered.

I aint shittin, I could take me a zombie. Take me a vampire, too, only here we are and I gotta waste my time with this lame shit. Id rather be huntin zombies.

He pointed at Tolley.

Hey, boy.

Daniel returned to the bed and shook Tolley awake.

You think I could take me a zombie, head up, one on one?

The red eye rolled, and blood leaked from the shattered mouth. A mushy hiss escaped, so Daniel leaned closer. Sounded like the fucker was finally openin up.

Say what?

Tolleys mouth worked as he tried to speak.

Daniel smiled encouragingly.

You hear that wind? I was a bat, Id spread my wings and ride that sumbitch for all she was worth. Whered they go, boy? I know she tol ya. You tell me where they went so I can get outta here. Just say it. Youre almost there. Give me a hand, and Im out your hair.

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